Monday, 03 December 2012 13:45

Written by Bill Brink

If the Pirates make no more moves, this is what their payroll breakdown will be. This helps us understand how much, if any, payroll flexibility the Pirates have.

Here is a good overview from Cot's Contracts.

A.J. Burnett: $16.5 million

Wandy Rodriguez: $13.5 million

Russell Martin: $8.5 million ($2 million signing bonus, $6.5 million salary in 2013)

Clint Barmes: $5.5 million
Andrew McCutchen: $4.5 million

Charlie Morton: $2 million

Jose Tabata: $1 million

Pedro Alvarez: $700,000

That’s a total of $52.2 million.

Arbitration-eligible players and projected salaries, using middle-of-the-road projections:

Joel Hanrahan: $7 million

Garrett Jones: $5 million

Neil Walker: $2.5 million

James McDonald: $2.5 million

Gaby Sanchez: $1.5 million

That’s a total of $18.5 million

That leaves 12 players on the active roster, making around $500,000 each, adding an extra $6 million.

Add in the final 15 players on the 40-man roster and you have another $1 million or so. That brings our grand total to roughly $77 million

When you take away money sent in trades from other teams -- $8.5 million from the Yankees and $5 million from the Astros – you get $64.2 million out of the Pirates’ pockets.

If the Pirates deal Hanrahan and/or Jones, they will clear a decent chunk of payroll. If they deal them both, that’s $12 million or so gone, bringing the Pirates’ commitment down to $52 million or so. The question then becomes, what do they do with that money?

The new league-wide MLB TV deal starts in 2014 and will pay out more to each of the teams through revenue sharing. Increased attendance has provided the Pirates with at least some additional flexibility, and the draft and international signing limits leave more money to be spent elsewhere.

This is meant as a reference, not as an argument that the Pirates should or will spend more. Payroll is a third rail with this team, and understandably so. It would appear that though arbitration will increase payroll a good deal, the team may have some room. We will find out more from Neal Huntington when we meet with him at 5:30 ET. If they clear payroll, it will be interesting to see what they do with it.